Neal sets another home sales record

Tuesday

Jan 7, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By JOSH SALMAN

Neal Communities set new company records for sales in 2013, the second year in a row the privately held homebuilder has topped its previous best.

The Lakewood Ranch-based company sold 826 new homes last year across its 16 Southwest Florida communities, from Parrish south to Lee County. That was a 35 percent increase from 2012, previously Neal's best year.

It also marked a 486 percent turnaround for the company since 2008, the trough of the economic downturn for area builders.

The uptick was consistent with record gains reported throughout Southwest Florida last year, with the new home industry rising to its healthiest level since the Great Recession quieted activity.

Neal executives attributed the growth to a strong pipeline of baby boomers trekking south to buy retirement homes.

"There's been pent-up demand across all buyer segments since the recession," said Michael Storey, president of building for Neal Communities. "A lot of people put off their decision, and it's all about confidence, really. People have seen housing come off the bottom, and they're attracted to that equity again."

Neal's sales last year varied in price from $150,000 to more than $2 million. But the vast majority ranged from $250,000 to $350,000.

Of those sales, 44 percent were speculative -- meaning they were built before they were bought.

That is significant because, throughout the downturn, spec building essentially disappeared.

Neal's ability to ramp up such work became an advantage when demand rose, because it shortened the time interested buyers needed to wait to move into a new home, Storey said.

Neal also has benefited from an aggressive land-acquisition strategy that capitalized on land prices damaged by the Recession.

That has given the company ample land to build on, now that demand has recovered.

Neal opened 10 new communities in 2013, opened a new division in Bonita Springs and is overseeing communities in Lee and Collier counties. For 2014, the builder plans to open nearly a dozen new neighborhoods and expand into Hillsborough County.

If the market continues to be healthy, the company expects to double in size over the next five years.

"We have a very aggressive outlook," Storey said. "We certainly need the market to continue cooperating for us to reach that number. We have a deep market presence in Sarasota and Manatee. In order to grow the business, we have to look outside this territory."

Neal's sales report comes one week after rival builder Medallion Home said it broke sales records for 2013. The Bradenton-based homebuilder sold more than $100 million worth of new real estate last year, up more than 25 percent from 2012.

Both records come as smaller builders and national firms alike have returned to building here after being chased away by the recession.

Through 11 months of the year, builders have pulled 2,791 permits for single-family homes in Sarasota and Manatee counties, a 43 percent increase over the same time last year and a 99 percent surge from those months in 2011, records show.

Most expect that growth to continue in 2014.

"Whoever was able to survive the years of the downturn, if you made it through, you ought to be very busy right now," said Alan Anderson, executive vice president of the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association. "It's to the point now where some builders cannot even keep up with their orders -- and that's a good problem to have."